Belgrade’s Slavija to Get a New Look

In future months the Belgrade authorities will decide on the future appearance of its largest circular square, unique because it branches into eight streets, all vital for the functioning of traffic in the city’s centre.

Nemanja Cabric

BIRN

Belgrade

Following the end of a competition for ideas on the future look of Slavija on January 9, the jury awarded four second prizes in the amount of about €2,500 each, bought off two more works at the price of €500, and honoured one application with a special recognition.

The awarded projects include solutions such as a central fountain, underground pedestrian crossings under four streets (Beogradska, Kralja Milana, Nemanjina and Bulevar Oslobodjenja) and street furniture.

The final architectural plan for public surfaces around the square and location of the monument dedicated to prominent socialist figure Dimitrije Tucovic will be made in spring and will include solutions from all six awarded projects.

Slavija was projected in the 1880s as the final square in a succession of squares around Belgrade’s central route from Kalemegdan: Studentski Trg-Trg Republike-Terazije-Cvetni Trg-Slavija.

After World War II, in 1947, the new communist regime renamed the square in honour of Dimitrije Tucovic and placed a bronze bust of Tucovic at the central square of the plateau. His remains were also burried in the middle of the square in 1949.

In time Trg Dimitrija Tucovica was with Trg Republike one of the rare examples of true squares in downtown Belgrade. In the early 2000s the name of the square was officially changed back to Slavija, but the bust and the grave remained.

During the newest reconstruction the remains of Dimitrije Tucovic will be taken to the Alley of the Greats at Belgrade’s Novo Groblje Cemetery.